Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Friday, March 27, 2009

Hooray for Everything!

Here's the last kick at the 'Earth Hour' can of corporate greenwashing:

First, Alanis is on a jet:

They could have used that ad to encourage people to choose rail over air travel when possible ... but if they did that, it might look a bit odd because the big media company that invented Earth Hour is co-sponsoring an Earth Hour ad contest offering a trip to Cannes:
To celebrate Earth Hour, ad magazine Campaign Brief -- with Earth Hour partners Fairfax/The Sydney Morning Herald -- is offering the chance to win a trip to Cannes. Yes, in a big old emission-puffing plane.

Lightbulbs are easy, transportation issues are hard. A radio station in New Zealand is "spreading awareness":
“This is the worst kind of corporate greenwashing”, said Wellington resident Kent Duston. “MoreFM are pulling out all the stops to promote Earth Hour, yet they are running their activities from the back of their corporate SUVs!

Doing anything is hard, really:
Aware of the criticism, Earth Hour's organisers last year countered it with something concrete: businesses that signed up would need to pledge to reduce their emissions over the following year by 5 per cent. But this year, even that requirement has been dropped, and there has been no accounting of whether last year's sponsors lived up to their pledge.

No, wait ... doing useful things would be relatively easy if you're not distracted by lightbulbs.

And our awareness of the WWF is from their advertisements. What do we really know about them:
WWF Australia was financially rewarded throughout the years of the Howard Government.WWF received a five-fold funding boost from the federal government between 1996 and 2004, at the same time as government funding to almost every other environment group was slashed.

Also in Australia, Earth Hour's sponsors are some of that country's worst polluters.

Wake up, sheeple! ... ha ha, I've always wanted to say that.

Anyhow, the funniest bit about Earth Hour comes from the skeptical National Post:
Then again, we're not environmentalists. We're capitalists. In fact, we're capitalists who've been known to enjoy an ice cold Coke, not to mention a wholesome musical concert now and again. It's not that we don't recognize some rudimentary concept of environmental appropriateness in lifestyle, conduct and thinking. But we prefer to put our faith in the inter-twined march of technology and the free market rather than feel-good slogans and rituals.

Oh yeah? Capitalists? That paper's never made a dime and, according to the latest NADbank survey, it never will:
The National Post and The Globe and Mail, meanwhile, saw their readership sink by 13.1 per cent and 6.5 per cent, respectively. ... The Post and 24 Hours were the only two papers to lose readers in that combined print and online category. The Post's combined readership slipped by 1.7 per cent ...

13 per cent? Guess what, National Post? You suck at capitalism! If you really wanted to get your brand out there, you'd be following Coke and Wal-Mart and sponsoring Earh Hour.

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